SCOOP

TWEET

Lie For An Upgrade? A Third Of Travellers Will Do It

Bruce Parkinson, Open Jaw

05.04.18

We might call them “little white lies.” In the UK, the term is “telling porkies” or “blagging.” Whatever you call it, travellers are good at it, with a recent survey showing that 47% of customers who admitted to telling fibs to get something for nothing succeeded in their aim.

The most common lie used to get free upgrades and perks is "it's my anniversary," used by 39%, followed by "it's my honeymoon" (22%), and "it's my birthday" (17%).

The survey by price comparison website hotelscan.com found that 38% got free bottles of sparkling wine, 20% were given room upgrades, 18% got free food and 10% were given free spa treatments after falsely claiming it was a milestone day.

Airlines were less generous -- or possibly less gullible than hotels -- with only 5% of those who fibbed admitting to have received a free upgrade.

The 53% who failed to score freebies said the excuses they received for the rejections ranged from staff claiming there was nothing they could do, or that there was no availability.

A third of the 2,432 respondents to the hotelscan.com survey admitted they had lied to get travel freebies, with 43% requesting hotel upgrades, 37% a flight upgrade, 34% asking for free bubbly, 29% trying to snag free spa treatments and almost a quarter asking for free food.

Bruce Parkinson Editor-in-Chief

An observer and analyst of the Canadian and international travel industries for over 25 years, Bruce uses the pre-dawn hours to prepare a daily news and information package to keep industry members up to date.